


I'm A Monster Fighter

by Nikolaus_Chaser



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adoption, Confused Dean, Dean doesn't know what he wants, Dean is Bad at Feelings, M/M, Murder, Orphan Jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 20:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12565916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikolaus_Chaser/pseuds/Nikolaus_Chaser
Summary: After the gruesome murder of Kelly Kline, her son Jack is rescued by the Sioux Falls Police Department.  Sherif Jody Mills reaches out to Dean and Castiel to foster the child while she looks for any surviving family who will take him in, but Dean is reluctant to make a commitment to the child once he learns who the boy's father is.





	I'm A Monster Fighter

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be my entry for jhoomwrites' reverse emoji challenge... but then things got out of hand and I actually completely forgot to use any of the emojis. So enjoy this angsty little au where Dean, Cas and Jack slowly learn ho to be a family!

_Brinng. Brinng. Brinng._

It’s four o’clock in the morning, and the phone is ringing.

This has better be good.

Castiel groans and rolls over, thwacking Dean on the side and scowling into the pillow. “Hit the snooze,” he grumbles, words barely coherent as they’re muffled by the pillow.

“S’not the alarm,” Dean says. The only response he receives is a loud snore from Cas and another shrill ring of the telephone, so with a sigh he kicks off the covers and pads his way down the hall. In the kitchen he grabs the phone off the wall just before it can ring again, grumbling a barely coherent “hello” into the receiver, and then a much clearer “who the hell is this calling at four in the goddamn morning?”

“This is Sheriff Mills with the Sioux Falls Police Department,” there’s a pause where the sheriff takes a heavy breath, and then she says, “You and that husband of yours still lookin’ to adopt? Because if you are, well… I might just have some happy news for you.”

Dean’s brain short circuits for a few seconds before he can actually articulate himself. Finally, he forms words and says, very eloquently, “Uhm… Yeaahh?”

“I know it’s early, Dean, and you probably haven’t had your coffee yet, but this is kind of an emergency. And you don’t have to make any commitments right away, either, so don’t feel pressured. But I’ve got a little boy here with no place to go home to, and you and Cas were the first people I thought of.”

“Yeah no, this is fine, Sheriff. You just caught me off guard. But we’d be happy to take the kid in for as long as you need. How old is he, I didn’t catch if you’d said?”

“Three years, two months. His parents both died this morning.”

“Accident?” Dean asks, frowning. Sheriff Mills hums in response, and Dean knows they can’t be a good thing.

“We’ll talk about it at the station later. Can you be here by 6:30?”

“AM?” Dean whines. He can already imagine the hassle it’s going to be to get Castiel out of bed and ready to function by that time. Although, the mention of an adoptable baby will probably wake his husband up fast enough. “We’ll be there, Sheriff,” he adds before she can reprimand him, smiling even as he stifles a yawn. “Thank you for the call.”

“See you then, Winchester.”

The phone clicks as she hands up, and Dean hooks the handheld back into the wall before shuffling over to the coffee maker go start their first morning pot. He and Cas usually go through two per day, between the two of them, and that’s just in the morning. His stomach is all in knots after his phone conversation, and he can’t help the way his heart leaps into his throat as the gravity of the situation sets in.

He and Cas are going to be dads.

Screw the coffee. He’s got to go wake up his husband now.

Because he and Cas **are going to be dads.**

•·.·´`·.·•• ••·.·´`·.·•

“Yeah, um… no.”

Castiel is currently playing peek-a-boo with the toddler, an adorable baby boy named Jack, while Dean and Jody go over his case file and discuss their options. It’s still pretty early in the morning, but they’ve at least all had their coffee (and in Dean and Cas’s case, two-and-a-half cups each) and can form coherent thoughts and sentences.  Which is how Dean comes to the conclusion, as he looks over the file Jody handed him, that the are _not_ adopting this kid.  No way.

“Dean, I understand the circumstances of his case are a little difficult to process, but it’s not the boy’s fault his father’s a--”

“A manic serial killer who murdered five people in under twenty-four hours, including the kid’s mother and himself?”  Dean jabs at the case file with his index finger, tapping a mug shot of a middle-aged man who looks eerily similar to Jack.  “You know this shit runs in families, Jody!” he hisses.  Jody scowls and snatches the file back from Dean, tucking it under her arm.

“That boy hasn’t hurt a fly, and as long as he’s got some good parents raising him, he’s not _ever_ going to hurt a fly.”

“You don’t know that.” Dean scowls, turning to look again at his husband and the toddler.  Jack has now climbed into Castiel’s lap and is staring with wide eyes at a picture book which Cas is holding, his fingers tracing the shape of one of the ducks in the photo.  “Watch m words, he’ll be skinnin’ frogs and birds before he’s four years old.  Next thing you know-- Bam! Cas and I get our throats slit in the middle of the night, like that movie with Peter Sarsgaard.”

At this point Castiel finally turns his attention away from jack and to the other two adults in the room, eyes narrowed.  “Dean, are you talking about _Orphan_?”

“Yes, I am!” He exclaims, exasperated.  Jack looks up with wide eyes when he makes the noise, bottom lip wobbling nervously.

“He angry. Why he angry?” Jack asks quietly, covering his face with his hands and turning away.  Dean frowns but says nothing, and Castiel shoots a glare in Dean’s direction as he bends close to whisper something in the toddler’s ear.  Jack listens to what he has to say, thinking for a good ten seconds before he nods and stands up, taking cas’s hand.

“We’re going to get Jack some hot chocolate from the kitchen,” he says, directing the three year old down the precinct hallways and towards the station’s small kitchenette.  Dean says nothing as they go, standing with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.  Jody lets out a heavy sigh.

“Look, Dean, I told you over the phone that there’s no commitment right now.  But you and Castiel have already gone through all the adoption background and home checks, and you’re the only people i know right now who can held out.  If you don’t take him, he goes into the system and there’s no telling where he ends up.  You of all people should know how rough the system is on these kids.”

Dean huffs, nostrils flaring.  He can barely stop himself from rolling his eyes.  “I should’ve known you would pull the ‘you know the system’ card.” He mumbles.  Jody frowns.

“Because it’s true!  It’s going to take me two or three weeks to track down some family whose sane and willing to take the boy.  In that amount of time he could be cycled through two, maybe three homes, and whoknows the kind of people he’ll end up with.  You lucked out when Bobby took in both you and Sam together, but you know damn well--”

I know that I know, ody!  You’re acting like I didn’t live my own memories,” he snaps, then drags a hand over his sweaty face and through his hair.  He closes his eyes and groans.  “Fuck you, we’ll take him.”

“Good.  Thank you,” Jody smiles and walks over to her desk, shuffling through some papers and producing a stack of forms Dean is, presumably, going to need to fill out.

“Only for a few weeks, though.” He adds, shuffling over to her desk and taking a seat in front of the table.  Jody smiles back at him and nods.

“Of course.”

•·.·´`·.·•• ••·.·´`·.·•

Dean is pushing the shopping cart while castiel wanders a few feet ahead, notepad in his hand and tongue poking out in concentration.  Jack sits in a booster seat in the front of the card, sucking intently on a Tootsie Pop Jody had given him for being ‘such a good boy’ back at the station.  It had taken Dean and cas nearly four hours to fill out all the paperwork necessary to temporarily take custody of Jack, and they weren’t even finished.  In the early afternoon somebody from the state would be coming by to check out their apartment and make sure they really are fit to be foster parents, despite having already been vetted and approved by a private adoption agency.  It’s just a precaution for the child’s sake, and a good one, but it’s still tedious and annoying.

“We need diapers?” Dean calls to his husband, stopping in front of a giant rack of Pampers.  Castiel turns back, humming thoughtfully.  Finally he shakes his head.  

“No, three year olds are usually potty-trained.  But we’ll get some plastic sheet protectors just in case.”

Dean nods, looking down at the toddler with a disdainful sigh.  He’s sucking happily at his lollipop, which is grape flavored (which, _ew_ , that just goes to show there’s something wrong with the kid) and is oblivious to anything else going on around him.  He is kind of cute, ean thinks, but immediately stops himself.  Everybody thought _Orphan_ was cute too, and look how that movie ended.  Yeah, exactly.

They spend almost a full hour wandering through the store picking up everything they need to bring a new baby home to their apartment.  Because they’ll only be keeping Jack for a few weeks, according to Jody, they don’t need to get a lot of the bigger stuff (though Castiel does drag Dean through the toddler bedroom section of the target while wearing the biggest, dopiest puppy eyes he’s ever seen) but they do pick up some child safety locks and some healthy food for the kid.  They even wind up buying Jack a Pillow Pet ( _“Twenty five dollars for a unicorn plushie?  What the hell, Cas?”_ ) but that’s mostly because he grabbed it off the shelf when Dean wasn’t looking and then refused to let go of it after.  Castiel wasn’t any help, either, encouraging Jack to give the thing a name even as Dean was trying to pry it from his grubby fingers.

“Give it three days and he’ll be stabbing it’s eyes out with a pair of safety scissors,” Dean mutters in castiel’s ear as they wait at the checkout line.  Cas nudges Dean with his elbow and tells him to shush, smiling all big and gummy when Jack cuddles the toy close and gives the unicorn a kiss on its nose.  Even Dean has to admit that, _yeah_ , that was kind of adorable.

•·.·´`·.·•• ••·.·´`·.·•

For the majority of the first two weeks, Jack doesn’t say much.  Castiel is home most of the day with the toddler, since he’s a grade school teacher and it’s summer break right now, but as much as jack seems to enjoy his presence he still doesn’t say much.  Jody tells Dean and cas that it’s fairly normal, for a child who has been through as much tragedy as Jack has, and tells them to just hang in there while she works on finding a suitable family member to take him in.

“You know,” Castiel says one night as he crawls into bed next to Dean, wrappin an arm around his husband’s bicep and kissing his shoulder, “if it turns out nobody in Jack’s family can take him, we could adopt him.”

Dean grunts in response, staring at the TV and the news report playing out on the screen.  It’s nothing exciting; just a story about a penguin at the zoo who protected another penguin’s eggs after she died suddenly.  He’s hoping Castiel will just let this subject drop, but he’s having no such luck.

“We could turn the guest bedroom into a kid’s room.  Paint racecars and rainbows on the wall… I think Jack would like that, don’t you?”

“Can’t paint on the walls, Cas, we’ve got a lease agreement.”

He huffs, rolling his eyes.  “Okay, so we won’t paint the walls.  It really doesn’t matter.  What do you think about adopting Jack, though?”

“I think the kid’s a freak, Cas,” Dean snaps, arms crossed over his chest.  “He doesn't even _talk_ to us.  is father was a schizophrenic serial murderer who killed three people before he showed up and stabbed Jack’s mom to death.   _In front of_ the kid. Do you know what kind of psycho-baggage he’s already got?  I’m not interested in taking on those kind of issues.”

Castiel purses his lips and lets go of Dean’s arm, sitting up against the pillows.  He crosses his arms over his chest.  “Most normal people would consider what you just described a tragedy, Dean, and not label the kid a freak.  What is this really about, Dean?  Did you change your mind and you don't want to be a dad anymore?  Because if so, that's fine and we can talk about it, but don't go acting like it's because Jack is some sort of monster.  Because that's just insane."

Dean snorts, flicking the television off and looking crossly at Cas.  Cas stares crossly right back.  “I’t's not insane, dude.  Schizophrenia is a hereditary mental illness.  And if your parent’s got it, you’re ten times more likely to develop t than regular people.  The kid’s a murderous time bomb just waiting to explode.”

“You’re being so hyperbolic!  And since when are you some sort of expert on schizophrenia?” Cas snaps.  Dean scowls and looks away.“I read,” Dean snaps, elbowing Cas’s thigh.  “Either way, the kid was found sitting in a pool of his _mother’s blood_.  You and I watched Dexter together. You know how this story ends, and it’s not good!”

Castiel groans in frustration.  “Dean, that’s on TV, not in real life! This is a real, live, human child we’re talking about!”

Dean is just about to growl out another response when the door slowly begins to creak open.  Dean and cas both stop, turning to look at the door where Jack, small and lanky with sleep-mussed hair and tears on his cheeks is standing, clutching his Pillow Pet Unicorn.  “Ca-as,” he croaks, voice shaking, and pads his way towards the bed.  He climbs up, crawling into Castiel’s outstretched arms as he sniffles.  “I miss my mommy,” he whines.  Castiel shushes him and pets his fingers soothingly through his hair.

“It’s okay baby,” he answers, rubbing the bo’s back.  Dean watches them interact, suddenly feeling like a stranger.  He wishes that it wouldn’t make his heart hurt as much as it does.  “Did you have a bad dream?”

“Monsters,” he mumbles, sniffling and closing his eyes.  “I told the monsters to go away, but they didn’t listen.  They took my mommy and then they-they--”

“Hey, hey,” Dean finds himself saying, scooting closer and reaching out to brush Jack’s tears away with his thumb.  The little boy looks up at him with wide eyes, his lips wobbling, “No monsters are gonna get you here, alright, kid?  You wanna know a secret?”

Jack sniffs. “What?”

“I’m a monster fighter.  And as long as I’m around, no monsters are gonna be able to hurt you.  There are no monsters allowed in this house.” He says, ten smiles and tickles under Jack’s chin.  The boy giggles and hiccups, turning and pressing his face into Castiel’s chest.  Dean shares a fleeting look with his husband before he looks away again, frowning.  So what if he hates to see the kid cry?  

“Can I stay?” Jack whispers. Castiel nods.

“Of course, buddy.  Come on, we’ll make a spot for you right between Dean and I.” He helps Jack rolls into the middle of the bed, tucking him and his unicorn under the blanket so they are nice, warm and cozy.  He smiles and kisses Jack on the forehead.  “No monsters can get you here, I promise.”

“Are you a monster hunter, too?” Jack whispers into the darkness. Castiel chuckles.  

“Yes, baby.  It’s part of the family business.”

“Will you teach me how?” He asks.  Castiel’s eyes meet Dean’s again, briefly, and then Dean answers before Castiel can.

“Of course, Jack.  Like Cas said, it’s the family business.  And you’re a part of our family now.”

•·.·´`·.·•• ••·.·´`·.·•

They have the adoption paperwork all filled out by dinner time the next day.  Six months later it’s finally official, and they throw a huge party to welcome Jack to the family.  As it turns out, Jack fits into their family perfectly.


End file.
